Bank consortium lends P24.2 billion for CALAX

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. subsidiary MPCALA Holdings Inc. and a consortium of local banks inked on Thursday night funding requirements for the construction of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX) project.

The banks, led by Banco de Oro Universal Bank, late last month approved a loan amounting to P24.2 billion for the development of a 45-kilometer, four-lane tollway that begins at the SLEX Mamplasan exit and ends at the toll plaza of Cavitex in Kawit, Cavite.

The other lenders include Unionbank of the Philippines, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., Landbank of the Philippines, and Security Bank.

CALAX president Roberto Bontia said the loan would serve as the financial backbone for the project’s construction and completion.

“As the private proponent we are really committing at completing the project and one of the things we are doing is to reinforce our engineering and technical team,” he said.

Bontia said CALAX would serve 50,000 motorists every day from Laguna and Cavite upon completion. The tollway will reduce travel time from the farthest point in Laguna to Manila in 30 minutes.

The tollway has a total of eight interchanges, and is made up of two segments. The Laguna segment begins at the toll barrier coming from SLEX, while the Cavite segment starts at the Silang Interchange.

Bontia said the company is committed to open first 10 kms of the Laguna segment by July.

“We had successfully tapped the promise of North Luzon, through NLEX. The time has come to bring out the development potential of South Luzon,” MPTC president and CEO Rodrigo Franco said.

Public Works Secretary Mark Villar said CALAX is viewed as the “most modern expressway” and a big ticket infrastructure project that would start of a new momentum of regional growth in provinces south of Metro Manila.

“Tollways have always been at the forefront of our infrastructure building initiatives,” said Villar, citing CALAX as a “development force that will prompt accelerated growth in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon.”

MPCALA was awarded the P35.43 billion CALAX project under the public private partnership program during the previous administration.

MPTC, the tollways arm of infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investment Corp., holds in its portfolio of projects the NLEX, SCTEX, CAVITEX and current construction projects C5-South Link, Connector Road, and the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway in Cebu.